MTW Japan Seminary Building & Downtown Nagoya Church Plant

As we have mentioned before on our blog there are MANY exciting things happening in Japan right now. We received this e-mail from Dan Iverson, the MTW coordinator for Japan. (To view a video link plugging this project check out John Piper’s site.) What an amazing opportunity for Nagoya!

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“Attempt great things for God; Expect great things from God.” – William Carey, Father of modern missions, missionary to India

“Ask, and it will be given to you…” (Matthew 7:7)

Dear friends and partners for the sake of the gospel in Japan:

Today we ask. We ask God. We ask the owners. We ask you to pray. We will make the owners (and their agent/creditors) an offer in a few hours (about 11am today, Mar. 11; 9pm Mar. 10 USA EST).

Prov. 21:1 The king’s (and owner’s) heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.

God has provided over $870,000 that is now in hand or committed over these last weeks. These actual funds and pledges have come from Japan land sale, two large matching fund pledges, a virtual flood of smaller email commitments from $100 up from the USA and Korea, our 3 Japan MTW teams pooling resources, and Japan Christians’/churches’ partnership. Exciting to see the body of Christ pull together to see this strategic endeavor for gospel progress in Japan happen. We have seen how raindrops and little streams come together to form a river!

More still needed in email pledges/commitments this week as negotiations continue. Major renovations are needed for the building to be turned into a campus for CBI and a downtown church plant. (You can see the building on the video at the link.)

Please pray for this project! This is huge, impossible if God is not in it. That gives us peace.

Japanese laborers key to reaching Japan! CBI seminary is strategic. We will not reach Japan if God does not raise up a legion of godly, Holy Spirit-filled, doctrinally sound, practical Japanese pastors/church planters/ leaders. Christ Bible Institute (CBI) and Seminary (CBS) is crucial to our MTW Japan goal of a Biblical, indigenous Church Planting Movement (CPM)

Please pray with us. More information below, and also through the John Piper link and video at the top.

Your partner in the gospel, for the sake of God’s glory among the lost millions of Japan,

Dan Iverson

More Information on the CBI Building project

Email pledges/commitments only at this point. But, we do need to know how much we have above the $870,000 already in hand or committed. Please do not give yet! We need to KNOW that this is a “go” first. If God moves the heart of the owners and givers, and these two amounts come together, with added necessary renovations, we will then provide giving information and ask those who pledged to give. We will need most of the pledges to be given as soon as we let everyone know that God brought all this together. Or, God may then provide an even better land and building situation, as we saw in Chiba 5 years ago (all the prayer and pledges were prep for something much better than our initial plans).

None of us can financially support all the worthy needs that come our way. But, we are are telling our many MTW Japan prayer partners and supporters from all 3 MTW teams because this is a strategic project that will support and help gospel progress in Japan. We are sure you want to pray for this. And, as we have already seen, many do want to make a one-time gift commitment to it.

Seminaries strategic: We have been in Japan 23 years. We see steady progress, but it is slow. Until we begin to see a multitude of godly, Holy Spirit-filled, gifted, well-trained Japanese pastors and church planters raised up, and until we see church multiplication and reproduction regularly taking place, it seems that we are not going to see this dark land reached. For church multiplication (healthy churches starting healthy churches that start healthy churches) we need
many more Japanese leaders.

City Center Nagoya Church plant also strategic: The CBI staff and students have already started a growing international church worshiping Sunday afternoons in the crowded, borrowed Nisshin Church facilities where they meet in the suburbs. They now plan to start a city center church in this new building, if God gives it. Read more about it at the link above.

Nagoya: Nagoya proper is 2.2 million people, and metro Nagoya is about 4 million people. As the Apostle Paul went to the cities to reach regions, so do we.

Why the rush? The company that owns the building is going bankrupt. As a religious corporation, our position and ability is not so good once it goes to auction. Also, CBI and their Sunday afternoon international church plant are growing. Our MTW church plant where they meet for class and worship is also growing and needs them out for their own space needs. And, to move downtown makes the seminary accessible to a much wider area.

Is this a good deal? It is a buyer’s market right now in Japan. Also, the land alone is worth $1 million. We are basically getting the 30-year old, steal and concrete building for free. The company who inspected the building for us wrote in their report that to construct a new building now of this size and quality would cost about $1.6 million. So, together with the land worth $1 million alone, we believe this is a great deal for the Kingdom ($2.6 million value, in one sense).

Why am I so much behind Michael Oh, our CBI president? Michael is a godly and gifted man. God has His hand on Michael and is blessing his ministry. You can hear his brief but powerful plenary testimony at the recent Urbana conference. He was also one of the main speakers at John Piper’s pastor’s conference in 2008. You can also find that message at John Piper’s website.